It is not too late to make something…be it a pincushion, coasters, pot holder or even a mini quilt (use your imagination) to go in the 3rd category of Small Quilted Item. You could try for a throw quilt if you have made some of the blocks and don’t think you can finish the twin size.

Friday, December 14, 2012

My biggest little guy finished year 1 today, it has gone so quickly but he had a great teacher and there was a teachers aide again this year so I think he has had lots of learning, encouragement and guidance…which I thought couldn’t go unappreciated! So I made them something each that I hope they love.

Lunch bags! The pattern is free over at the Pink Penguin blog! I love this bag, I have one myself which I use to carry around hand sewing.

These are lined with a food safe waterproof fabric which was lovely to sew with and looks really neat. And for the wadding I have used a layer of Insul-bright to insulate them.

Now we have to start getting ready for next year which will be very exciting and scary too. The biggest little guy will be in grade 2 and the littlest guy will be starting kindy. I have a feeling kindy might be a bit of a shock to his system – with the sharing, separation from mum & dad and new rules to follow. Hopefully it won’t take too long to for them both to settle in.

Friday, December 7, 2012

Today I am going to show you how I put the quilt top together for the How far will you go? QAL.

Remember though that you don’t have to make the whole quilt for a chance to win something, even if you only managed a block or two you can make that into something like a potholder, cushion or tote bag. Don’t feel pressured just have fun!

This is my quilt top all put together. I did it exactly to the layout that we started with at the beginning (except my outside border is bigger)….but if you are concerned about colour balance feel free to switch blocks around so that you are happy!

When I put the blocks together I broke the quilt up into sections. In the picture above you can see there is a section 1, 2, 3 and 4.

My biggest tip for joining the blocks together is to line up any seams that match and use pins. Sew with 1/4” seam allowance and it is a good idea do do a little back stitch at the beginning and end of each seam to hold it all together.

Section 1

Section 1 is actually broken up into smaller sections to sew it together.

Sew the smaller blocks together first. Another Star, St. Louis Star and the 2 Susannah blocks all get sewn together. Then join these onto the Dutch Rose block.

Sew the Tippencanoe blocks together in a row, and sew the 2 Clay’s Choice blocks together. Join these together before sewing them onto the Wandering Foot block.

Then finish section 1 by joining the two part sections together.

Section 2

Sew the Farmers Daughter and the Jack in the box blocks together first.

When you join together the Pieced Star blocks be aware that a 3rd pieced star block is in section 3, check that you have these 3 where you want them for colour balance.

Join the Pieced Star blocks to the right-hand side of the Arrowhead block. Then join the 3 top blocks to the top of the section.

Section 3

Join the 4 Seesaw blocks together in a row.

Join the 2 Pinwheel Skew blocks together and then sew these to the bottom of the 3rd Pieced Star block.

Sew the 2 Crazy Ann blocks together. Join the row of Seesaw blocks to the top of the Crazy Ann blocks. Then join the Pieced Star/Pinwheel Skew section onto the right-hand side.

Section 4

Sew the 3 Windblown Square blocks into a row.

Join the Grandmothers Choice block to the Weathervane block. Then sew these to the left-hand side of the Tassel Flower block.

Sew the row of Windblown Square blocks to the top of the Tassel Flower section.

Joining the sections

Sew section 2 to section 3 first.

Then add section 4 onto the bottom.

Then sew section 1 onto the left-hand side of the larger section 2, 3 and 4.

Your blocks are now all together.

You can leave it like this and finish the quilt without borders if you like…or you can continue on with the next steps!

Borders

The inner border is 1” wide finished.

Cut 7 strips 1.5” x width of fabric. Trim off the selvedge's.

To make the side strips join 2 sets of 2 together (LOL a bit of double dutch there).

You want 2 strips that are 1.5” wide x 75.5” long. This is the EQ measurement, which worked perfectly for my quilt, but you may want to double check by measuring your quilt through the middle.

Sew these to the long sides of the quilt top. Start by pinning each end and pin in the middle and then ease it all in.

Press the seam to the border.

You should have 3 of the 1.5” strips left. Cut one in half and join each half to a full length strip. And then trim to the right length.

You want 2 strips 1.5” wide x 52.5” long.

Sew these strips to the short sides of the quilt in the same manner as the long strips.

The outer border in the original pattern is 5” wide.

I have made mine 6” wide. Mainly because that is the width of my long ruler. I also cut my borders from the length of the fabric - so I had a 2 metre piece of fabric, leaving it folded I cut off the selvedge's and then cut 2 strips 6.5” wide down the length of the fabric. Giving me 4 strips 2 metres long.

Friday, November 30, 2012

And of course I forgot to take before photos…we are putting new carpet in our bedrooms, we have had a concrete floor in the main bedroom for about 4 years and the carpet in the boys rooms is about 30 years old so it is long overdue!

So these are the boys rooms. We think the house was an owner build because it is pretty dodgy…so we are redoing all the skirting and architrave boards. And then we need to paint before the carpet goes in.

This morning I meet mum at Spotlight and we used our $40 vouchers to get curtain fabric for the new rooms too.

It is all happening!

I have managed to squeeze in some sewing time though. This is the backing for my How far will you go? QAL quilt. Kind of an improve stacked coin look. It is a lot bigger than the actual quilt size and I still need to trim the edges.

I had to order some more fabric for my border so I thought I would make the backing while I waited. I ordered the fabric from Perri at Stitches from the Bush, she has a great little online shop. And I snuck in a Noteworthy charm pack, I am so in love with this range!

Friday, November 23, 2012

Well this is the last block for the How far will you go? QAL….It is been an exciting and interesting 18 weeks. I can’t believe we have been doing this quilt for 3 months, it has gone really fast!

So originally the last block was Hayes Corner but it really was not going to work for a 10” block….so I chose a much simpler block for us to finish on!

This block is basically the Crazy Ann block (week 13) but without the crazy, which can only be good! And I am so sorry I took the photos on my design board, the white background is not the best decision.

Sunday, November 18, 2012

Block 11 of the QAL is Tippencanoe which is 4 foundation pieced 5” blocks….so cute! The tute for these is here.

These are the blocks for the QCA Bee hive 2…September. I loved using some of my Spring Street stash for these!

October. The blocks from this month will make one loud quilt I think!

And November. These are big Polaroid blocks. Great for fussy cutting!

That is the Bee up to date now! And I only have two more blocks for the QAL to do – Crazy Ann and Pinwheel Skew. I have made the last block, just have to write the tutorial. It is really the Crazy Ann block without the Crazy….I hope that is okay, I didn’t realise they were so similar until I started working on the Crazy Ann blocks this morning.